Difference Between Dogs and Wolves

Both dogs and wolves are very closely related animals as their features and characteristics are almost alike. However, the differences still exist between them mainly with regard to their habits and some of the other aspects as well. This article discusses these differences between the two creatures whose loyalty and love penetrate into hearts, while howls could also go deep into our bones.

Dogs

Dog, a Canis familiaris, became domesticated from the gray wolves (grey wolves) about 15,000 years ago. Presently, dog is a completely domesticated animal, mostly living with people as one of their closest friends. People keep dogs for many purposes including hunting, guarding, sometimes working, and mostly as companions. There are a number of dog breeds those differ in their physical characteristics as well as temperaments. In fact, the dogs have the highest diversity in terms of appearance, size, and behaviours than any other domestic animal. They could be surprisingly small as well as, considerably large; a Yorkshire terrier is only 6 centimetres tall and 10 centimetres long with a weight of only 110 grams, while a Great Dane could measure more than one metre in height. English mastiff dog is the heaviest dog in the world with a weight of more than 150 kilograms.

Dogs are territorial, and they mark their territories with urine and faeces. Dogs bark in an exited situation or sometimes in a strange situation. Because of their domestication, they have lost some of the carnivorous features, e.g. they do not have well adapted teeth to tear meat. However, their canine teeth are prominent. Dogs are easy to train, obedient companions of the human. When their owners get back to home after work, some dogs jump up high in the air in jubilation, some dogs waggle their tails rapidly, and some dogs even laugh. It is unique for each individual, the way of expressing his or her happiness to the owner.

Wolves

Wolves are the largest extant wild members of the Family: Canidae. They are totally wild animals and very difficult to domesticate. Wolves are highly intelligent animals with an exceptionally developed sense of smell, which is more than 100 times that of a human. They are social predators, and live in families. Pack is the referred term for an assemblage of wolves. Wolves are famous for their pack hunting, in which the pack follows the prey and surround so that the prey has no option but to fight alone for survival against a hungry and aggressive wolf pack. Wolves can usually run fast for a longer time, which is very useful for their predatory lifestyle. They have well adapted teeth for predation with sharp canines and molars. They are hard to train, aggressive animals. The muzzle is longer in wolves, so that they can give a deep and hard bite on the prey. An interesting fact about wolves is that they rarely bark, but often howl in a spine-tingling frequency. Wolves shed their coat twice a year; they shed the winter coat in the spring and grow the short haired summer coat, and they shed that before the winter. The reproduction is temporal as the female comes into heat only once a year.

What is the differences between Dogs and Wolves?

Some major distinctions between dogs and wolves are important to discuss, and those are as follows.

• Dog is a fully domesticated canid, but wolf is totally wild.

• Wolves are larger and stronger than dogs.

• In wolves, the muzzle is longer with prominent and sharp teeth accompanied by strong jaw muscles. However, in dogs those features are less prominent compared to a wolf.

• Wolves have long and strong legs compared to dog.

• Normally dogs bark but wolves howl.

• While wolves are more intelligent, dogs are more loyal, and bonded to their owners.

• Female wolves come to heat only once a year, while female dogs become sexually receptive twice a year.